Hey, Dex, can you help me out?

My efforts to polish my culinary skills (OK, the develop ANY cooking skills) have been derailed, at least momentarily.

My grocery supply has run short, so I've reverted to some of my old ways the last few days. I've been eating out more often the last few days. I have no good excuse.

I may have rediscovered why I never developed the habit of regularly eating at home. Did you realized that in order to have food food in the house you have to go shopping? With each and every meal you prepare, your food supply is diminished. And if you don't use it fast enough, some of it spoils! What's up with that?

The fact of the matter is I've just been too lazy to go back to the store to stock up again. On the way home from work, I'm just not motivated to deal with tramping up and down the aisles, checkout counters, etc. So, then I get home, get busy being a bum, and then it just gets too late to go to the grocery store.

Maybe I need to start exploring the options to shop online and get my groceries delivered. Then I can sit on my ever-expanding butt at midnight in my underwear and artery-clogging digestibles.

***

I obviously spend too much time setting on my widening butt watching TV. So, since not everyone has that sort of quality time to bond with their boob tube, I'll share with you what I've learned.

There is this actor named Brian Stepanek who seems to be in every frickin' commercial there is. But don't take my word for it. Here are some samples:









For more samples of his work, check out the commercial reel on his website. The dude in omnipresent and funny as hell.

Have I ever mentioned that I did some acting in high school? Maybe I could have been the Dex guy! Naw, on second thought, probably not. If I was Dex, I'd already know how to find a grocery store that delivers after shopping online.

For some reason I'm craving a DiGiorno pizza and a DQ Blizzard.

Some touch-and-goes are touchier than others

I saw this video earlier today (first posted on a site called LiveLeak.com) and it made me glad I wasn't on this plane. But it did remind me of a hairy takeoff several years ago from Ontario International Airport.

That particular adventure was on a Southwest Airlines flight. I was traveling with three coworkers up to Sacramento to help our sister paper in Marysville cover a flood. We were like the relief workers, after they had all been working days around the clock.

One of the people in our little quartet hated to fly. As the son of a pilot, I was trying to convince him that flying was no big deal. The weather, however, made our takeoff a very big, nearly very bad, deal.

I had never felt a plane turn sideways as soon at the wheels lost contact with the ground, but I did that evening. I'm glad I don't have video of that little adventure to see just how much like this German landing it really was.

The only other time I got nervous on a flight a couple of years ago this month coming into Portland International Airport.

I wrote something about that landing a couple of years ago in another venue, but here's how I described that little adventure.

Portland... was in the midst of a squall. The wind was obviously kicking up pretty good, because that MD-80 was tossed around.... We were bucking and bouncing and slipping and banging all the way through the final approach. The passengers seemed to handle it pretty well, but you know the turbulence is bad when you are sitting in the back of the plane and you can see the front of the cabin bouncing and gyrating around.

After we reached the terminal, when everyone was in the rush to hurry up and wait in the aisle, I asked one of the flight attendants one of those stupid "Here's your
sign" sort of questions.

Me: So, is it windy here?

Blonde flight attendant: Yea, there's quite a storm out there. It's been like that all day.

Me: I thought that landing seemed a little rougher than normal.

Flight attendant: Yea, it thought I was going to get sick there for a minute.

It does not bode well when your flight attendant admits queasiness on landing.

On both occasions, I had far less harrowing travels than the folks who were coming into Hamburg on Saturday. Here's one account of what happened. Good thing the pilot on the Airbus didn't lose his cool, or his lunch.

Healey's passing leaves guitars weeping again

Canadian guitarist Jeff Healey could make a guitar weep, or roar. His unconventional playing style, holding the guitar across his lap, allowed him to make one instrument sound like many. But sadly, now that guitar is silent.

Jeff Healey died Sunday in Toronto at age 41.

I can't claim to be an expert on music, or even Healey's music, but I am proud to be a fan of his blues/rock. I got to see Healey perform once, years ago, in Medford, Ore. My roommate at the time, Logan, and I ventured across the mountains from Klamath Falls to see the Jeff Healey Band perform at some forgotten venue in Medford.

I don't remember when, or where, I first heard Healey's music. It was probably in college. But Logan converted me into a fan of Stevie Ray Vaughan, another blues/rock guitar virtuoso. Vaughan, who was also taken the world far too soon, dies shortly shortly after Logan introduced me to his music. Now, Healey's passing has reminding me a friend from long ago I haven't seen in many years. But that's the magic of music. It's the ultimate time machine.



My early Healey music collection was on cassette tapes, now gathering dust in a back room. But I have added some of my favorite Healey song onto my digital music collection. I'd like to find some of his jazz work to see if I enjoy that as much as his blues sound. It's amazing how music with so much energy and vitality can still sound so sad an mournful at the same time.

Since I heard of Healey's passing earlier today, the refrains of his cover of George Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," have been running through my head. Today, guitars all over the world are weeping, because Jeff Healey won't be around to make them sing as only he could.

R.I.P. Jeff, and thanks for sharing your special talent and the music of others who came to it through your love for music of earlier generations.

Making a splash in the Oregon desert

Is this a sign of another Eastern Oregon Internet celebrity?

Hey, towns like Hermiston, Ore., don't warrant much of a mention from the likes of the Oregonian, unless it relates to the chemical weapons being incinerated near there. But who cares about the Oregonian, this puppy's (or Bulldog) has apparently been feature on ESPN baby! Come to think of it, Dick Vitale would fit right in in Hermiston.

I actually learned about the video from watching KATU Channel 2, which had an angle on the basketball video that differs from the YouTube video that's garnered tens of thousands of views. I'm not sure where that video came from, but the one on YouTube is the "original" one getting popular via the Web.

How come my Hermiston-related video hasn't gone viral yet? I guess I shouldn't have edited out the slam dunk of a watermelon.